Joan at Mud Ranch is hoping to add a border collie to help with their sheep chores. They are going to get a trained dog, but the sheep need some training as well. Jacob sheep can be challenging for a dog, they like to intimidate and some do a little more than intimidate…especially when they have lambs. I offered to bring Kate with me when I came to visit and work with their sheep a couple of times. You can read Joan’s tale of the day on her blog.

Kate and I had a slightly different take on it😉

Her sheep have mountains and they are very good at climbing them!

I love the look on her face in this photo. Kate had never seen anything like it!

She is used to working on flat ground without any obstacles.

The sheep thought they had outsmarted her, but after convincing her that the sheep were up there (she couldn’t see them) she went up and around and brought them back to the barn for us.

I forgot how much fun it could be to work ‘challenging’ sheep. Most of our sheep are ‘dog broke’ meaning they are used to being worked by a border collie and ‘give’ to her when she puts pressure on them. We have individuals that still like to give Kate a run for her money, but for the most part she has done a good job training them.

It took her a little while to get a feel for the different environment and the different sheep…

but she soon had them bunched up together.

She had to keep going left and right or in herding terms ‘away’ and ‘come by’, but she managed to keep them together so we could get a closer look at all the lambs.

It was much warmer than she is used to and her tongue was hanging WAY out in no time at all.

I will never forget my first visit to Mud Ranch, I swore I would never drive there again! The road is twisty and turny with several places where the road turns back on itself. Since then, I have become very good friends with Joan and driving to see her and all of our friends at Mud Ranch make the drive worth it. Plus, the drive really is beautiful! This is the first time I made the trip with a trailer though, I am happy to say that it went just fine🙂

The welcoming committee was just as sweet as at Mendenhall’s.

When we pulled in, the three bottle lambs came running at us and Kate immediately felt like she needed to control them. I did tell her that she was going to get to work sheep, but this isn’t what I had in mind.

After unpacking the truck and settling in, we headed out to see sheep. The kids were very happy to play in the creek.

I wish every child could experience the imaginative play that comes with playing next to a creek. They had little horses that were floating on logs down the ‘raging’ river.

While they enjoyed themselves, we had Kate gather the sheep and looked at all of the beauties.

There were many that I liked and I did a little bit of ‘in person’ shopping…

here is one that will probably call Oregon home in the future.

I also got to see some familiar faces…

Lancelot moved to California last August and he has matured nicer than I could have hoped for!

Joan has told me about his personality, that he is a funny guy and he was certainly showing off that evening. He was having fun stirring things up.

The weather was outstanding while we were there. We enjoyed a fire on the back porch and…

SMORES🙂

Good memories!

After a visit that was too short, we were back on the road and headed for home.

Tomorrow’s post will be about Kate’s adventure with Joan’s mountain climbing sheep! It was an adventure.

After a couple stops in Oregon, the trailer was full and we were on our way. We had 5 jacob lambs, 5 Romney lambs, 3 Romney ewes, and a Wensleydale ram. While my son and I enjoyed the warm weather, the poor sheep weren’t sure of the 95 degree weather. It was quite a change from the wet, soggy, cool NW!

We arrived at our first destination Friday night and more importantly it was where all of the sheep were getting off the trailer.

I also really enjoyed this little dog work. Her name is Jill and she is only 6 months old. She had the maturity and work ethic of a much older dog.

She had so much confidence and self-assurance, even with sheep all around her. Nothing like watching a good dog work sheep!

Dapper Dan, Felice, and Hoopla will be making the big trip with the Mendenhall’s all the way to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. From there they will be going to New Jersey and New York. They looked good when we left Saturday morning.

We headed North Saturday morning, but we had another stop in California before heading home.

A visit with our good friends at Mud Ranch! More about our visit there tomorrow.

Kate has a huge work ethic and is always looking for the next job that needs done…luckily there is plenty for her to do, on and off the farm.

She is happiest when she has something for those intense eyes to lock onto.

We have enough grass at the moment that the sheep are being rotated through different pastures. This group includes the two retired girls, Holly and Dolly, and the ewe lambs. I was hoping to only keep 2 ewe lambs this year, but as you can see I wasn’t very successful🙂

The sheep are eager to move when Kate is in the pasture, unfortunately Magoo the llama isn’t so easy.

This is Kate’s least favorite job, she likes to pretend she can’t see him😉

Magoo shares her dislike of being herded, but eventually he follows the sheep.

On to the next job…

rounding the chickens up.

She even has my back when I miss count and forget one. Of course it was one of the RIR that was trying to stay out all night. The two we have are very naughty chickens.

Kate’s off the farm job is hazing geese at a local college. We didn’t find any geese for her to chase this day…

but this is a common sight.

The geese are very messy and destructive. Kate uses her intense eye to stalk them, much like their natural predators and they fly off looking for a safer place to hang out.

My son’s dog, Rose, likes to go too but she doesn’t have the same serious approach to her work. She likes to use her happy bounce to scare the geese.

They make quite the pair! Kate tries to ignore Rose just like she does with Magoo😉

‘You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy’ – Bob Ross

This morning we loaded a few dogs in the car and headed up I5 to visit our good friend, Lora. It was time for Rose to visit some other sheep and I was looking for some guidance on the best way to start her. I also think it is good for my son to work with someone other than his mom with his dog :) It helps that he adores Lora!

The dog…

the sheep…

and the beauty…

that is herding!

It was so funny listening to my son while Lora was working with Rose – ‘Lora is the best trainer’ and ‘Look at how fabulous Rose is’ and ‘We should come here every week’ and ‘I can’t believe how good she is doing’. He cracks me up!

After Rose, Gypsy had a go.

Gypsy is a daughter of Nell, my second favorite border collie, right behind my Katie girl.

Here is Nell telling the Cheviots to ‘move’🙂

Before we left, Nell brought the sheep up to the barn so I could see the new ram – Sam. He is mostly Blueface and is from Tammy’s farm.